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October 02, 2004

Billy Bob Thornton on the "Tonight Show" Friday night, 10/1/04

Billy Bob Thornton was a guest on Jay Leno's "Tonight Show" last night. They showed a clip from Friday Night Lights, and it was scene in which coach Gary Gaines gives a pep talk to his players in a locker room. Here's Billy Bob Thornton as coach Gaines in that scene:

You all have known me for a while, and for a long time now you've been hearing me talk about being perfect. Well, I want you to understand something. To me, being perfect is not about that scoreboard out there. It's not about winning. It's about you and your relationship to yourself and your family and your friends.

Being perfect is about being able to look your friends in the eye and know that you didn't let them down. Because you told them the truth. And that truth is that you did everything you could. There wasn't one more thing that you could have done. Can you live in that moment? As best you can with clear eyes and love in your heart. With joy in your heart. If you can do that gentlemen, then you're perfect.

Then the scene ended with applause from the audience, a good bye handshake from Jay Leno, and a cut to a commercial. In all fairness I should probably point out that earlier in the interview Mr. Thornton said some things that, hmmmmm, how shall I say this, things that might be considered a little bit less than perfect. For example he said that he thought William Shakespeare was overrated. He also said that he wanted to name his illegitimate daughter after Barney Fife. So, I can only suppose that when someone gets a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame it makes them really, really smart.

Comments

I saw the Leno segment and was surprised at how little was said about the movie. These guys generally show up to promote their next film, and there was basically no comment about the clip that ran.

It's a shame that Billy Bob and Angelina couldn't make it work...they were made for each other (equally strange, in other words).

OTOH, I did think his comparison of Shakespeare's plots to soap operas was perceptive. He had it just backwards, of course; we'd be better of if they stopped doing soap operas and did more Shakespeare.

There was a great scene in "Shakespeare In Love" in which the play "Romeo and Juliet" ended with Juliet's death, and the audience just sat there momentarily in stunned silence. A great scene, and entirely realistic. I dunno, maybe soap opera audiences sit there in stunned silence, too.